Blue Moon
by Achava
Summary: All merboy Naruto wanted was to make that lonely looking human smile. Yaoi. AU. SasuNaru one-shot.


**Author's Notes: **A story that I was inspired to write at half past midnight. Whatever rules about mermaids/mermen that were established by Disney's The Little Mermaid are being completely ignored. Other than that, the point of view is mainly Naruto's and as he matures, so does the writing. Enjoy.

**Rating/Warnings: **M for mild sexual situations. This is a Yaoi (boyxboy) story, so you have been warned. Also, this story is unbetaed.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the anime/manga series Naruto nor do I own any of its characters.

* * *

**Blue Moon**

The first time Naruto saw Sasuke, he was fifteen and naïve. Of course, at the time Naruto had no idea what mystery boy's name was, so he settled on referring to him as The Black Enigma, because The Black Enigma seemed to enjoy overly dramatic black clothing and needed an overly dramatic name to accompany him.

Hiding behind a large rock and stealing covert glances at the boy who looked, for lack of better words, like loneliness had thrown up all over him, Naruto pondered the other's presence. Enigma was a human boy who had taken up residence on his favorite beach. A boy who seemed to have a permanent frown etched on his face. Naruto continued to inspect the boy from a distance in the ocean, swishing his tail back and forth unconsciously, before reaching the conclusion that the boy would look much better if he smiled.

And so, Naruto continued his viewing of The Black Enigma with his head tilted as far to the side as possible, and this way, he mused, the boy almost looked as though he was smiling.

* * *

When Naruto was sixteen, he learned The Black Enigma's true name.

At first Naruto thought that he would never be destined to learn it. He figured that this lonely human boy who frequented his beach would remain just that: a lonely, nameless boy.

But, as fate would have it, Naruto did learn Enigma's true name. As the blond hid behind his usual rock and observed the boy, a rather large wave rolled up behind him and simply picked the merboy up, depositing him in water that was much closer to The Black Enigma and barely shallow enough to hide his tail. The blond would later muse that perhaps the wave hadn't been quite so large and that he had simply needed a good excuse to get closer, but honestly, it was all hearsay with no definite proof or persons willing to bear witness.

_Enigma's eyes seem to be much angrier than usual_, Naruto thought as he was pinned with a stare that would have made any lesser merman quake with fear. But instead of swimming for cover, Naruto opted for his usual maneuver: friendliness.

"Hi! I'm Naruto. Would you like to swim with me?"

The Black Enigma continued to bore holes through Naruto's skull with his eyes.

"Well, that's alright. You don't have to talk if you don't want to," Naruto paused again, allowing the boy a moment to speak if he chose to take it. When the silence became awkward and Naruto decided that the other didn't look very intent upon contributing to what he had hoped would blossom into a dialogue, the blond continued, "That's what I like best about this beach. It's so peaceful and accepting. You don't have to say anything for it to just hold you down, tie your body to the earth and make sure that you're safe so you can let your mind wander through the stars."

Enigma's eyes decided to focus on an interesting clump of sand near his foot because, for some reason, he was finding it difficult to meet trusting blue eyes.

"What's your name?"

"It's Sasuke." The other's voice startled Naruto, who had not been expecting an answer.

"Sas-uke. That's a nice name. Why do you come to this beach so often, Sasuke?"

The brunet took a long minute to mull over the question before offering a response.

"Why have you been following me for a year?"

Naruto's eyes widened before a sad looked came over his face. "Because I'm waiting to see if you'll be as beautiful as I always imagined when you finally smile," he murmured.

Black eyes met blue again.

"I'll see you around, Sasuke," said Naruto before he disappeared with a flick of a tail, something which did not escape Sasuke's sight.

* * *

When Naruto was seventeen, he had a long talk with Jiraiya about the human boy that had caught his eye. The blond spent the better part of an hour describing how the other always looked so upset, how Sasuke must have been his age but appeared so much older, how he spent every night staring up at the constellations and, most of all, how he would never get to lie next to him on the sand.

Jiraiya simply smiled. "Be patient. Once in a blue moon, miracles happen."

"But the moon is never blue! And I've never heard of an almanac that predicts that the moon will ever _be_ blue!"

Jiraiya kept smiling as he waved goodbye to Naruto and swam off.

"Stupid old jerk," grumbled Naruto, "He's always drunk."

Three months after this conversation, Naruto finally convinced Sasuke to swim with him. They had gradually begun to talk more and more, mirroring Sasuke's increasingly frequent visits to the beach. If Sasuke didn't show up, Naruto would spend all night waiting for him, eventually falling asleep as he leaned against his favorite rocky hiding place. If Sasuke showed up, then Naruto would swim to the shallow water and barrage him with questions, only half of which would be answered.

But this night was special, because every night Naruto's first question was, "Sasuke, would you like to swim with me?" And every night Sasuke would reply that no, he would not. But tonight when Naruto asked, Sasuke responded by standing up and stripping off his clothes. With a grace that Naruto imagined must have been uncommon in humans, he walked to the ocean's edge and soundlessly slipped into the sea, walking slowly and confidently until he was waist deep and situated in front of Naruto.

"Will you show me your tail, Dobe?"

Blushing ten shades of red and trying at all costs to avoid looking at Sasuke, Naruto nodded dumbly.

Sasuke gave a small noise of satisfaction before he kneeled down. When the blond remained still, Sasuke wound his arms around the other's waist and began to suck lightly on a small patch of the merboy's stomach. "Naruto…" he whispered as he pulled back to admire the tiny bruise that was quickly forming on the other man.

The merboy swallowed thickly before raising his tail above the surface of the water. Sasuke raised his hand, laying his fingers lightly atop the aquamarine scales, gently sliding his palm down to the tip of Naruto's tail and watching as the other boy shivered.

"Swim with me, Sasuke," Naruto's voice, Sasuke noted, dripped with the self-consciousness of one who was undergoing great scrutiny. But this time, he also noticed, it was not a question but a gentle command. And Sasuke acquiesced. He interwined his pale hand with Naruto's golden one and the two fell backwards, floating on their backs in the dark waters of the ocean, of time, of oblivion.

* * *

On Naruto's eighteenth birthday, he sprouted legs.

Awakened by the sun's rays as they lazily filtered through the ocean, Naruto found that his tail had seemingly morphed into two very human legs. In fact, there was nothing very merman-like about him aside from the fact that he was somehow breathing underwater without the aid of gills.

Naruto spent the daylight making the slow trip back to his and Sasuke's beach, during which time Naruto marveled at humans who took up swimming as a hobby, for the blond found it to be an exponentially more tiresome activity without the aid of a tail. By the time he had reached his rock, it was already night and a full moon was shining overhead. Naruto surfaced for the first time since he had lost his gills and gulped in oxygen from the atmosphere. Plunging his head back into the ocean, he found that his ability to breath underwater had suddenly disappeared.

The blond peered out from his hiding place to find Sasuke watching him, waiting for him. Naruto swam over but, instead of stopping in the shallow coastal water as usual, he picked himself up, listening to the creak of joints that sounded nearly otherworldly to him, before unsteadily staggering his way over to the brunet on new and untrained legs.

The reclining boy watched his friend's feat with burning coal black eyes. He remained silent until the blond was standing directly in front of where he sat. "Naruto," he whispered, "swim with me."

Sasuke reached up to clasp Naruto's slightly larger hand and tugged the other down to lay on top of him. Sasuke's fingers intertwined themselves with the back of Naruto's head as he guided the blond's mouth down to meet his own, kissing him with a soft passion that made Naruto's head spin.

As the two made love for the first time on the beach, Sasuke found that he was not swimming, but instead drowning in an essence that was purely Naruto. When Naruto's breath hitched and he bit down on what he hoped was Sasuke's lip and not his own—but at this point he was having trouble telling himself apart because he was so intertwined with, so full, of Sasuke—Naruto was finally rewarded with the knowledge that, yes, Sasuke was even more beautiful when he smiled than he had imagined.

Afterwards, Naruto and Sasuke lay side by side in the warm embrace of the sand, the beach, and each other's arms and watched the sky. They would later agree that the moon had almost appeared blue when it reflected the color of the dark ocean beneath it.

* * *

**Author's Notes: **I'm still not sure where this story came from, but it seemed to just write itself. Reviews are very much appreciated.

-Elle


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